What is the difference between mask bef and bfe?

According to the standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International), masks need to pass different filtration rate tests. When the test meets the standard, they can be launched into the market. Therefore, it is not difficult to find that the masks will appear BFE, PFE, VFE 3 words. Of course, when purchasing masks, the higher the data of BFE, PFE, and VFE, the better.

BFE refers to bacterial filtration efficiency (Bacterial Filtration Efficiency), and the particle size is 3 microns, which has the effect of blocking pollen and droplets;

PFE stands for Particle Filtration Efficiency, and the particle size is 0.1 microns, which can block viruses such as influenza and SARS;

VFE stands for Virus Filtration Efficiency for particle sizes of 0.1 to 5 microns.

Can mask PFE and BFE share the same Masks Filtration Efficiency Tester?

The filter material of the mask is basically a meltblown non-woven fabric of polypropylene material, and factors such as the pore size and thickness of the fiber affect the filtering effect. Particles of different diameters are filtered by different principles, such as particle volume, impact, and diffusion principles that lead to being blocked by fibers, and some particles are filtered by electrostatic fibers through electrostatic attraction principles.

The test of filtration efficiency is carried out under the particle size specified in the standard, and different standards will use particles of different sizes for testing. BFE usually uses bacterial aerosol particles with an average particle diameter of 3 μm, while PFE generally uses sodium chloride particles with a diameter of 0.075 μm. Purely from the filtering effect, the effect of PFE is higher than that of BFE.

Summary: Because both of them have no pollution and toxicity, relevant experts believe that masks PFE and BFE can share the same detector.